Baku Airport to host integrated ATM/UTM control centre in 2020

World ATM Congress Baku International airport in Azerbaijan will host the world’s first integrated ATM/UTM control centre when work is complete in 2020, according to Derrick Xiong, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of China’s eHang, one of the project developers.

When complete, controllers will be able to monitor drone traffic around the airport with a 3D airspace model and drones will be tracked. identified and communicated with via a 4G mobile network link.

EHang together with Azerbaijani ANSP AZANS and ABRAHAM TECHNOLOGIES LTD have been working together to host the ATM Artificial Intelligence centre, to control flights of civil UAVs , automation of certification, permission and application for flight procedures.

According to Mr Xiong, similar projects are under development in Russia and Kazakhstan,

“This will be the first time ATM and UTM will be merged, with controllers able to operate both systems,” said Mr Xiong.